Millions of women are under the false impression that gynecology exists to serve them and ensure their feminine wellness, when that is the furthest thing from the truth. Gynecology was created to give men power over women's bodies, control over women's understanding of their bodies, and a means to monetize practices that were once ONLY performed by women.
Once Women-Centered
For more than 100,000 years women were just fine assisting one another with issues like vaginal infections and diseases, reproductive issues, and childbirth. The first and oldest book written about female issues and their natural cures was written by a Greek female physician named Metrodora. She was a gynecologist, a midwife, and a surgeon. This ancient text is proof that women held a degree of knowledge and wisdom about their bodies that surpassed anything a man could ever know.
Men Took Over
Unfortunately, beginning in the 1700s MEN in western countries started taking control over everything related to feminine health and childbirth. Imagine being told that the ways of the women before you were "backwards", and that you need to abandon those practices in favor of things men think you should be doing with your body. Instead of relying on nature and ancient knowledge to inform their decisions these male doctors choose to experiment on women instead. Their argument then (and now) is that their "scientific method" trumps anything that was being done prior to the advent of modern medicine. It was BIG business for them, while giving them easy access to women's bodies - to see, and touch, and probe. Midwives were stigmatized and hospitals became the norm for women delivering their babies. Eugenics (forced sterilization on black and brown women) was also cloaked under the guise of gynecological procedures. Gynecology is still being used nefariously against black and brown women.
Outdated ideas and false gynecological narratives from hundreds of years ago still persist in 2025. Much of what we believe to be true about our reproductive organs (how they look, how they work, how to take care of them) all comes from the minds of men hundreds of years ago.
Did you know that giving birth on your back is unnatural? Women never gave birth that way until men got involved. More specifically, the only reason the practice became popular was because King Luis XIV was fascinated with watching women give birth. He forced all of his mistresses to give birth on their backs since that gave him the best view. Hundreds of years later and women are still forced to give birth that way inside of hospitals.
The Truth Is Coming Out
Only recently have scientific studies come out disproving false information often taught to young girls and women about their bodies. For example, our reproductive organs don't look or behave the way we've been taught to believe they do. The medical model we often see doesn't mirror what actually exists inside of us. Also, did you know the narrative that women become less fertile over time has also been disproven? That particular lie was being perpetuated to trick young women into motherhood early.
Even the story they told us about how conception happens was a lie. There is no "sperm race" to make it to the egg first. A study from 2020 revealed that a woman's egg actually chooses the sperm it wants to use for conception, uses signals to draw that sperm closer for fertilization, and decapitates all of the other undesired sperm. Our eggs are also significantly larger than sperm...and our reproductive organs do far more than we've been led to believe. Men intentionally framed our understanding of our bodies in a way that benefits them. Gynecology was the means for them to accomplish that end.